Tadley II Vs Crows

Recap

The Crows travelled the short distance to Tadley for the opening fixture of the 22/23 season.

There was a new look about the squad, skippered by veteran Tom Stock in the 2^nd row, as no fewer than 5 players (3 in the pack and 2 in the backs), made their full Crowthorne debut. The team, further bolstered by the return of 2 players, making their first appearances for the club post Covid.

On an undulating field, Crowthorne asserted their dominance up front early in the game, with a series of strong scrums and big lineout drives. However, the lack of a pre-season fixture was at times evident in the Crows inability to complete promising passages of play.

Tadley, to their credit, defended manfully and rounded off the half with 2 opportunist scores from tap and go penalties, with the Crows defence caught napping. There was time for one final lineout drive on the Tadley line, which was illegally brought down but the penalty then reversed for some misplaced feet by a Crowthorne prop.

Moving into the 2^nd half, frustration grew amongst the Crows contingent, as the team failed to capitalise on multiple phases near the Tadley line. Again, it must be said that the Tadley number 8 did exceptionally well to retrieve the ball at the back of the scrum under severe pressure on several occasions. Additionally, their scrum half was a persistent nuisance on Crowthorne’s put in.

Eventually, the pressure told, with the flying American, EJ Lang, dotting down spectacularly in the corner for a debut try, after quick thinking from Shepherd at 9, opting to go blind from a scrum. This was the point at which the Crows should really have put the game to bed, but discipline let the side down and the penalty count against, rocketed. This led to the Crows being pinned back in their 22 for several minutes, before a well taken try, sealed a deserved victory for Tadley.

Man of the match for Crowthorne, went to debutant, Craig Joyce, playing his first ever game of rugby! After training with us last season and learning the game, he was pressed into action early on after an injury to starting inside centre, Andy Dawson. Craig ran hard with ball in hand and put in several big hits in defence. Very promising start for Craig.

The Crows will be considerably better for this, having shaken off the cobwebs and will look to put things right in the big derby match against our friends from Bracknell next weekend!